First day of early voting for Jan. 29 primary draws 936 Lake residents

January 15, 2008|By Martin E. Comas, Sentinel Staff Writer

TAVARES -- After casting her ballot at City Hall on Monday, Corrina Gholson had a few words of advice for voters

"Read that amendment," the 62-year-old Tavares resident said about a state constitutional amendment that would lower property taxes. "It's three pages long, so it's better for people to know all about it before they go to vote."

Gholson was among 936 voters who trickled into the seven early-voting sites Monday set up at libraries and city halls across Lake County. They were hoping to get an early start on the Jan. 29 tax measure as well as the presidential primary election.

County officials said there were no reports of early voters having to wait in lines.

"For a first day, it was a fairly good turnout," said Lake Supervisor of Elections Emogene Stegall. "I'm pleased."

Gholson agreed. "It went just like that," she said, snapping her fingers.

Elections supervisors across the state are giving residents an opportunity to cast their ballots weeks ahead of time.

Hoping to avoid the last-minute rush, Clair Gill and his wife, Mary Lu, also voted early at Tavares City Hall.

"This year, it's going to be very busy, so that's why we're here," said Clair Gill, 76, of Leesburg. "Because we're picking a new president, that's going to bring a lot of people to the polls."

Stegall said that in recent days, her office has received a high volume of calls from residents asking about casting early ballots and polling sites.

As of Jan. 8, there were 172,075 registered voters in Lake. Of those, 79,363 were registered as Republicans, 58,310 as Democrats and 34,402 as either no- or other-party affiliations.

Lake voters will use the same touch-screen voting machines at the polls this month as they have used since 2001.

But the controversial touch-screen system will be replaced with machines that produce paper trails by the Aug. 26 primary and the fall elections, Stegall said.

Still, disabled voters will be able to continue using touch screens until 2012, Stegall said. "We'll be using a blended system," she said.

Heidi Mitchell, 23, likes getting a jump-start on casting her ballot. And the early voting makes it easier for working people, she said.